Apr 21, 2017

Once upon time, only athletes cared about their heart and metabolic rate during workouts. They had to go to scientists with a laboratory full of special equipment to see how well their body performed during strenuous exercise.But thanks to modern wearables like Fitbits, anyone can get the athlete treatment. Information like heart rate, calorie burn, steps taken, and hours slept per night can be collected through your device and displayed in a smartphone app.

That all sounds nice in theory. But can a device the size of a watch actually replace all the fancy medical equipment that athletes use? And if your fitness tracker isn’t perfectly accurate, how close does it get?